Friday, May 18, 2018

The Royal Book Game

We're witnessing significant times for the British Royal Family, with the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, not to mention the recent birth of a new little prince for Will and Kate. So whether you're a staunch royalist, a republican or something in between, you can't miss what's been happening on the news. I saw this bookish tag game and decided to share it on my blog to mark the occasion, as my tribute to Harry and Meghan. Please play along. The rules are easy. Just match a book with the royal criteria.

QUEEN ELIZABETH (An old book you treasure)
There are several lovely antique books on my shelf that fit the bill, including an edition of L.M. Montgomery's Pat of Silver Bush from the 1930s. Such a gem.

KING GEORGE (A popular book you don't want to read)
Which George are they talking about? Mad Farmer George from the era that was named after him, or our current queen's father in the early-twentieth century? Anyway, I'll go Fifty Shades of Grey. We found proof from a second hand shop to back up my decision not to bother reading it. My son, who was along with me that day, amused himself by setting all the copies on one shelf, and there were almost eighty altogether. Why do so many former owners of this book continue to toss it out?

PRINCE CHARLES (A book everyone loves but you)
Lol, it's got to be Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. So many readers adore that book, but it didn't work for me at all. Mostly because I didn't like the leading man, Maxim de Winter. He was cantankerous, patronising, not at all sexy, and a crook to boot. I don't know what the nameless heroine saw in him, let alone generations of female readers. (My review is here.)

PRINCESS DIANA (A book fellow bloggers made you buy)
Well, I actually borrowed it from the library, but it was An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alammedine. I'd never heard of it, but it was well worth tracking down. It's about a quiet lady who persists in her literary passion of translation, even though nobody has a clue what she's doing. (My review is here.)

PRINCE HARRY (A book that took you on a wild ride)
Whoa, let me choose two, because they spring to mind at the same time. One is Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. The villains sure knew how to put a helpless heroine through a torturous ordeal, almost sending her mad in the process. (My review is here.) The other is A Cast of Stones, by Patrick W Carr. It's a fantasy novel that dragged its naive young hero through all sorts of danger, while he wondered why he was the target of so many wannabe assassins, having no idea he was the chosen one. (My review is here.) I highly recommend both of them.

DUCHESS KATE (Your last book purchase)
Technically she's not really the latest member of the British Royal family any more, because she's added three little children to the mix and after this weekend, there'll be Meghan Markle too. But I'll choose David Copperfield. I had a very thick copy which my dad used to own, but it was making my hand sore, so I bought a smaller edition from Dymocks. It's still thick as a brick, because it is nudging 1000 pages, but is far more manageable to handle. (Review soon to come.)

So those are my choices. How about yours? I challenge you to do it for Harry and Meghan. 


  1. The Queen - Sense and Sensibility leather bound version.King George - Harry Potter books; Prince Charles - The Shack; Princess Dianna - Save the Cat; Prince Harry - To Say Nothing of the Dog; Duchess Kate - Roseanna M White, Ladies of the Manor series.

    1. Thanks Meredith, great answers 😁 I have to say I agree that The Shack is a Prince Charles too 😊

  2. Oh, I *love* this! Such great questions!! My own answers/responses below...

    Queen Elizabeth = my ratty old copy of Moby Dick. The cover is falling off, the spine is a disaster, but I have such a strong emotional attachment I couldn’t bear to part with it!
    King George = there’s a whole bunch of YA dystopias on the market at the moment, and I’m really bored of them, to be quite honest. (And re: your point on Fifty Shades of Grey - I think the reason they’re constantly being donated and thrown away is fairly self-evident… hahaha!)
    Prince Charles = Gosh, so many! I just last night finished We Were Liars and… well, I mean, it was okay and everything, but I certainly don’t understand the gushing!
    Princess Diana = that’d have to be Fangirl. I had always intended to read it, but soooo many fellow book bloggers have been pushing it on me that I ended up actually buying a new copy from a chain bookstore (I’m normally a secondhand bookstore devotee, but none of my usual stops had a copy of Fangirl, so brand new was the only way to get my hands on it asap).
    Prince Harry = Crime and Punishment! It was such a shock, I was expecting a really dense and trudging read, but it was really thrilling and I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would!
    Duchess Kate = I managed to score a copy of Nineteen Nineteen at my local secondhand bookstore a couple weeks back, very happy. I had to declare a moratorium on book buying until after my wedding anniversary, though, so nothing since then!

    Thanks so much for sharing, Paula :) Keep up the great work!

    1. Thanks for playing, Sheree 💞 It's great fun, isn't it? I haven't read We Were Liars yet, although I've heard lots of gushing. I've heard it's not altogether happy, which has made me hesitate. Interesting that you classified it as a Prince Charles 😉

      I'm so glad your Prince Harry is Crime and Punishment, because it's on my classics challenge for this year. Now I'm looking more forward to it than ever. Great to get recommendations, especially for such thick books which takes a bit of commitment.

      Hey, happy wedding anniversary too, as I guess the date must be around now. You keep up the good reading, writing and sharing too.